Budapest sights II.

Last weekend I went to Budapest to visit a friend and I didn’t want to miss the chance of taking new pictures of the capital, so I went to River Danube between Margaret Bridge and Chain Bridge to photograph the Parliament with the statues around it.

Located on Kossuth Square the Parliament Building was built in neogothic style in 1904 by Imre Steindl. It is 268 meters long and 123 meters tall and was built only from Hungarian building material. Inside visitors can see the Holy Crown surrounded by the coronation jewelry, Settlement of the Magyars painted by Mihály Munkácsy and the changing of the guards. Fun fact is that Freddy Mercury liked the Parliament so much, he wanted to buy the building in 1986 when he came to Budapest for a concert with Queen. He was performing in front of 75 thousand people and he was so kind that he learned a Hungarian folk song, Tavaszi szél (=spring wind).
The statues I took photos of around the building are of the Count István Tisza Monument, Attila József’s statue, Lajos Kossuth’s statue and the Hungarian Museum of Ethnography.

Shoes on the Danube BankId. Antall József Wharf

‘To the memory of the victims shot into the Danube by Arrow Cross militiamen in 1944-45’-says a memorial tablet next to the bronze statues. The horrible story behind it is that the victims had to stand alongside the river before being shot, but they had to take their shoes off, because those were of great value at that time. The statues were created by Gyula Pauer in 2005 and they attract a lot of people. There are always candles and flowers next to this heartbreaking memorial.